Rev. Joseph Williams doesn’t know what it’s supposed to feel like turning 100 years old. It’s his first time.  

“I feel jubilant. I feel good. I feel thankful. If that has anything to do with it, then I feel like that,” Williams said.  

What’s Williams thankful for?  He laughs, sitting in his easy chair in Hawthorne. 

“That ain’t hard to answer: life, strength, that I’m still in this world,” Williams replies.  

He’s thankful the Lord woke him up that morning instead of letting him slip into eternity. A pastor for over 36 years, Williams weaves Scripture passages into his words like a sermon, pulling proof texts for his thankfulness.  

“Scripture tells me that ‘the Earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein,’” Williams quotes. “And so, if he owns it, he rules it.”  

On Saturday, Williams’ family, friends and neighbors celebrated the century mark in his life with a fish fry and barbecue. The party happened just outside the house that he built from the ground up—a big house that he planned for lots of children. A big house that now sits on Rev. Joseph Williams Street, named last year in his honor.  

Williams was born Sept. 29, 1925, just over the Putnam County line in Gordon Chapel, and he’s called Florida home for all 100 years, minus a tour in the U.S. Navy during World War II. The 14th child of Mary and Charlie Williams, the family had about a 20-acre farm about three miles from where Williams lives now. 

The children used to walk into Hawthorne to attend the old high school, currently Shell Elementary School. Now, Williams sits a few hundred feet away watching the road and traffic. 

But as a boy, no matter the weather, Williams said they hiked up the roads while the school bus passed them by. Walking back home after a sports game, he said it would be pitch black. 

“It was dark, and I just wondered how in the world that we made it,” he said. “Well, I know how we made it. The Lord carried us and brought us up.” 

Williams joined the Navy in 1944 and headed to the Pacific Ocean, riding in a convoy of ships to Hawaii and then an even larger convoy. He said he didn’t much like sailing. It was too much water, he said.  

He asked an officer where he’d find land if he looked. The man replied: “About five miles down.”  

The convoy ran across a typhoon, Williams said, with the ship rocking to 30- and 40-foot swells. It scared him to death.  

Williams said he served as part of the mess crew that prepared meals for the sailors and soldiers. For a long stint, he made the ice cream and got some of the best accolades of his life. 

Some people, Williams recalls, said he didn’t do anything in the war. He disagrees; he did exactly what he was ordered to do.  

“If they had told me to tow the gun, I’d have towed the gun. But I did what the Army told me to do, and if I go back again, I’m gonna do exactly what they tell me to do,” he said.  

Olajuwon White, Alachua County’s veteran services director, said Williams is one of only 14 World War II veterans remaining in the county when you look at those registered for medical care. 

Returning from the military, Williams worked on the family farm, then for 27 years at the Goodyear auto store. He married Lillie Mae, and they started a family. They had four children, but one died at six months from a heart defect.  

He built their big house from scratch over the course of years and also joined the Hawthorne City Council in the 1980s. 

Williams said he’d work at the Goodyear store on Main Street in Gainesville then go to the house and work some more. Some people questioned such a big house, but he had set his mind on it. 

“When I was young, there was a whole bunch of us at the house,” Williams recalled. “Sometimes my sisters and brothers, and sometimes they had children, and we needed that room. And I said, ‘If I ever got in a position to build a house, I’ma build it large enough so I can have some room.’” 

The Gainesville Sun reported on Williams on the city council when Hawthorne decided to change its charter and allow the mayor to vote. Williams was in favor of the change. His daughter, Eleanor “Kit” Randall, would serve years later as a councilwoman and mayor, and her daughter, Jacquelyn Randall, is the sitting mayor of Hawthorne.  

But Williams left the council and started on a second career late in life: the ministry.  

Williams said nobody can serve two masters, so he left the city council. How did he become a pastor? Williams laughs.  

“Hallelujah. That was an ordeal,” he said, taking his time to think back. “Something sent me into the ministry. Strange, but it did.” 

Williams said he thought his wife was tricking him in the middle of the night and waking him up. He went to another room but said an unseen voice was there, too, leading him to the ministry. 

Al Williams, the youngest child by 13 years, said his father was in his 50s and already a head deacon at Gordon Chapel Community Church when he decided to go to seminary. Soon after, he began preaching at Ebenezer Baptist Church before becoming pastor back at Gordon Chapel. 

And Williams preached and preached, retiring in his early 90s.  

Al Williams said his father was always supportive and had a big heart for people. He used to drive up to West Virginia to attend Al’s college football games.  

“He was always there for the kids,” Al Williams said.  

Of the kids, Al is the only child remaining, with Eleanor and Terrel passing in 2013 and 2025.  

Williams said all that is in the Master’s hands. But the family is gathering for his 100th birthday, he said, that’s another reason he’s thankful at the century mark, and he’s thankful for the family he had as a boy, who also made birthdays joyous occasions. 

“I had one of the sweetest families the world had ever known,” Williams said. “They never went anywhere and come back and not bring me something. That made me feel good, and I still miss them—all these years.”